George R. R. Martin at the Galaxy Bookshop

Worldcon wise it has been a busy month. The last four weeks have had at least one thing on a week in relation to Worldcon. Four weeks ago Charlie Stross was in at the Galaxy for a book signing. The following week was of course Worldcon/Aussiecon itself, followed in quick succession by Alastair Reynolds, also at the Galaxy, and now the grand poobah of all science fiction and fantasy writers, George R. R. Martin. George visited the Galaxy Bookshop today for a signing. He had also been at Worldcon last week but, again, his books are huge so there was no way I was going to lug them down to Melbourne. Today's signing was the best attended I've seen at the Galaxy in some time. People were queuing up the stairs and almost out on to the street. There were about 50 people already lined up when I got there. George arrived the same time I did. I think he'd been waiting for me. ;-)

No that isn't my big grey noggin in the picture above, just some fellow traveller in the queue.

George signed all seven books I had. I have a few more at home that he'd already signed the last time he visited - back in the 1990s. I told George he signed my British first edition hard cover of A Game Of Thrones back then. He said it is apparently worth $1500 now. Holy shit. I think I'll hide that one. When I buy books that suddenly increase in value by hundreds of dollars it is more good luck than good management. As far as I am concerned I am just getting the first available next book for that author. No one knows whether or not it is going to be a best seller. I think only 1500 copies of the UK hard cover of A Game Of Thrones were printed. Obviously the publisher wasn't pinning all their hopes on the next GRRM novel. The fact that it sold out quickly and the subsequent printings sold in the hundreds of thousands is just my good luck. And of course, good for authors like George too.

GRRM signing "To Shane, my BFF". Not really.

I asked George how Aussiecon 4 compared to Aussiecon 3 in the 1999. He preferred 3 because, he said, there were more room parties back then. The hotels frown upon that sort of thing now. Bastards. I told George I looked forward to him coming back for Aussiecon 5 in 10 or so years. Actually I think the Kiwis are bidding for the 2020 Worldcon. That'd be okay. Auckland is closer than just about anywhere else as far as us antipodeans are concerned. I hope to be getting to another Worldcon well before then though. 2014 is probably going to be in London. That would be cool.

GRRM trying to get me to buy a calendar too.

George's partner Parris was strolling around the shop taking photos and asking everyone in the queue to pose. She also exhorted everyone to not just to buy and read the epic fantasy series but we should also look at George's other works he created over his extraordinary career. There's also some classic sci fi and horror as well as the fantasy. Fevre Dream is a well regarded vampire novel for example. What could be better than Bram Stoker meets Mark Twain for Buffy's sake?

George and Parris.

George is another of those sci fi gentlemen. Good natured and gracious. One of these days I will meet a cranky sci fi writer and blow to shit my theory that the field is filled with nice guys and gals. Actually I do recall one slightly cranky sci fi writer. Harlan Ellison has a reputation for being short with fans and pros alike if they irritate him. I was on the receiving end of a tirade once at a book signing. It was all going swimmingly until he asked me a question. I don't recall the question or the answer. I do recall being flippant and Harlan went into a tirade that lasted for a couple of minutes. At the time I was unaware of his reputation. Now I look back fondly on the occasion. I can forever say now that I was one of the lucky ones who copped it from Harlan. George has been known to be cantankerous too but I think on those occasions it was justified. The next novel in the A Song Of Ice And Fire sequence, book five, has been coming for 5 or 6 years now. Some fans are demanding that George finishes it ASAP. George is sick to death of demanding fans "bullying" him incessantly for the next book. There was no way I was going to ask George today when the next book is due.

There were a couple of girls running around with a video camera and microphone filming the event. I thought they were too young to be professionals. I thought maybe they were podcasters, or worked for a community radio station or they were uni students doing an assignment. I had to ask and they were indeed uni students doing an assignment. They asked me if I would be willing to be interviewed on camera about sci fi fandom and George. Of course I am so shy when it comes to appearing in front of a camera that I declined. Yeah bullshit I declined. I thought I might be too nervous to string more than two words together but they asked me questions about a topic I am passionate about - science fiction and fantasy. So I was able to, in my humble opinion, wax lyrical and amusingly about sci fi, George and fandom. Well I hope I was waxing lyrically. They asked me why I liked George's work? I said the A Song Of Ice And Fire series is the best work of fantasy since Tolkien. I said in many respects it was better the the Lord Of The Rings because it was more... something... My memory fails at this point. I do recall both my interviewers nodding seriously to what I said. Obviously it was very inciteful. I went on to say that George's sci fi and horror is as good as anything else written in the last 30 years too.

My friendly interviewers. I hope they get full marks for their assignment.

I think that is it now for the short but sweet Worldcon season in Oz. I don't know when the next big name author will be heading our way to flog some books. Luckily we have a metric shitload of talented Aussie writers that live here that hopefully will be doing signings over the next whenever to keep me happy. That means I can't put all my books in storage for the minute, but my "library" is being renamed to "the babies room" in just over 3 months. Maybe I can put all the books where the writer is dead or highly unlikely to visit the antipodes in storage? But the baby needs a room and I don't think I need to find her chewing and dribbling all over a fifteen hundred dollar signed first edition George Martin novel. It'd be funny though wouldn't it.

George R. R. Martin's website.

Alastair Reynolds at the Galaxy Bookshop

Aussiecon Four was my first fannish geekfest and as a virgin con goer I couldn't have had a gentler deflowering. Part of the thrill of attending something like Aussiecon is meeting the authors of the books I admire most. I can remain reasonably cool when meeting and talking to most celebrities except for authors I respect. I get a bad case of the star struck fan boy syndrome. I start sweating, I forget what I was going to say and when I do talk I mumble like a dribbling imbecile. Thankfully nearly all the authors I have been lucky enough to meet the last couple of weeks have been friendly, courteous and generous with their time.

Alastair Reynolds is no exception. I was lucky enough to attend a couple of the panels he was on at Worldcon. He also, very graciously, signed the paperback of Revelation Space I had with me in Melbourne when I baled him up after a panel. I have nearly every other book he has written but they are door stoppers so there was not much chance of me taking them on the plane to Melbourne to get signed. Conveniently for me Alastair visited Sydney after Worldcon and had a book signing at the Galaxy. The Galaxy was also a little quieter than Worldcon so I had plenty time to get all my books signed and have a chat with the charming Mr Reynolds.

Alastair is the author of the brilliant Revelation Space series of hardish far future space opera novels, a couple of other stand-alone novels and a bunch of novellas and short stories.



Thanks Alastair.

Alastair Reynold's blog.
Alastair Reynold's wikipedia entry.

Worldcon - day 2 - after lunch

Suitably re-fuelled after lunch it was time to head back to the con for an afternoon filled with panels. Well, two or three more. Every hour there are about 10 different panels on a variety of topics. It can be hard to choose. Some are easy to discount. Some are harder. The way I choose what panel to see is I check out who is on the panel and what the topic is. Well d'uh. Interesting people talking on a topic I only have some, or maybe even very little, interest in will still get me in. A Scalzi or a Doctorow or a Benford, just to name a few, on a panel will be enough for me to attend.

Before the panels though, I ducked into the dealers room for a browse. The dealers room is giving my plastic a severe workout. I couldn't help myself but I had to drop some bucks for a boxed set of Schlock Mercenary comics. It is worth it just to see Howard Tayler sign each of the 6 books with a full page sized picture of the one of the characters from the comic. Howard is also one of the hosts of a podcast I listen to - Writing Excuses. As I told him, I came to his art because of the podcast. He is obviously doing something right because he will be taking home some of my hard earned.

Howard Tayler

You never know who you'll run into in the dealers room. This is my first con and I am totally amazed by how approachable the celebs are. Most of the time I get a little star struck and leave the celebs alone but sometimes you'll catch them in a moment where they might just have a minute to pose for you.

Cory Doctorow (above) was working his way through signing a box of his books at one of the dealer's stands, so I had to buy a couple. I already have these books but I don't have signed editions. I noticed that one or two people with I-pads were getting Cory to sign the back of the I-pad with marker pens. I had wondered how you could sign e-books.

Patrick Nielsen Hayden (above) was browsing the same stand as Cory and he also graciously posed for me holding one of Cory's books - I think PNH had edited it. He looked a little surprised when I first approached him. He probably thought I was going to pitch a novel to him. Afterwards, and with some dismay, I thought I may have said "Hi Neil Patrick Harris" when I approached him. I was nervous and I got a little tongue tied but I hope I didn't. Shit. Now that would be embarrassing.

Shopping done for the time being it was back to the panels. Kim Stanley Robinson, being Guest Of Honour, fits the criteria I mentioned earlier as someone I almost feel obligated to see on a panel. Marianne De Pierres on the same panel was bonus. This panel was The author’s strait-jacket: Switching genres.

From the right (above) - Kim Stanley Robinson, Ian Irvine, Melinda Snodgrass, Marianne De Pierres.

Marianne De Pierres and a little known blogger and fan boy.

The next panel I went to was Creating believable space travel. Starring, appropriately considering the interstellar subject matter, Gregory Benford, Ian Nichols, Gerald D Nordley, Amanda Pillar and Jeff Harris (left to right below).

Greg Benford is one of my all time favourite authors. I should really have spent more time perusing the list of authors attending this con. I may have shipped more books down to Melbourne to get signed. Fair dinkum, Greg has been there done that and knows just about everybody. He can also be very funny. I'm also very familiar with Gerald Nordley's excellent work in Analog Magazine. It is just one really interesting panel after another. Why the hell did I wait so long to come to something like this?

The last panel for the day for me was What can mystery teach science fiction? Quite a bit apparently. Mystery or detective or crime fiction has long history of association with SF. Asimov is a perfect example of a writer who wrote in both genres.

From left to right (above) - Don A. Timm, Alastair Reynolds, Jack Bell, Peter M Ball and Jay Caselberg who filled in for Sean Williams who was unable to attend.

And that was it for day two. Only time enough now for me to snap a couple of pictures of venue in the twilight and then catch a train home. I'm looking forward to day three.

Inside the venue - Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre.

View of the venue (MECC) from a bridge across the Yarra River.


Trams on Spencer Street.

Southern Cross Station formerly known as Spencer Street Station.

Worldcon - day 2

Today was almost my first full day at Aussiecon. I had intended being there for the first panel of the morning but I do like my sleep. As it was I only missed the first 30 minutes of the Galactic Suburbia podcast recording. I'll just have to download the podcast next week and listen to the full show. What I did see was pretty good though. Galactic Suburbia is a weekly SF news, events and book review podcast with slight emphasis on feminist issues. I've met a couple of the woman on the podcast over the last couple of days and only confirms my suspicion that people in SF are just nice people.

Alisa, Alex and Tansy.

Speaking of good people. The thing at the top of my list of things to do today was John Scalzi's book signing. Straight after Galactic Suburbia I dutifully joined the queue for John (as opposed to the queue for the john). We were only allowed two books at at time. I had six and a chapbook so I had to go around 3 times. The length of the queue had me doubting I could get around the queue more than once in the allotted hour. In the end though, no worries.
I'm a regular reader of John's blog and he comes across as a nice guy. After today I am pretty sure that what you see is what you get. John is a good guy and a gentleman. I wonder how he and other pros put up with the teeming hordes. All those fans with an entitlement complex. So far this weekend the only people I've seen with any sort of attitude have been one or two of the fans. I can't say it enough. John is a legend. Even if he did slightly, ever so slightly, poke a hole in the title page of The Ghost Brigades as he was signing it. And speaking of signing, each inscription was personalised and funny. Awesome job John. God, I'm gushing like a fan boy. Like a fan boy? I must admit those long leather trench coats half the other fan boys are wearing (Matrix anyone?) are starting to look real good now.


As you can see above the queue for Scalzi was enormous. Counting me, who stepped out of line to take this picture, there were three of us. See how glum John looks for the meagre turn out. Okay, okay not really. We were the last fans left in the queue and John very kindly posed that way for me. Told you, good guy.

Apparently by mutilating my book John has increased its value. He is helpfully noting where he holed the page for future reference.

Just because I just can't get enough Scalzi, immediately after the signing with John I attended a panel with uber geek Cory Doctorow, George Ivanof and John Scalzi. I swear I'm not stalking you John. It was way too presumptuous of me to attend this panel considering the stage of my career I am at, Making a living: Professional writing for speculative fiction authors. But how often am I going to be able to attend a panel with Scalzi and Doctorow on it at the same time? Still, they covered a lot of ground and it was informative, entertaining and fascinating. I loved Cory getting off topic and going off on one of his DRM rants.




Cory Doctorow

It is just one thing after another at Worldcon. As soon as the last panel finished I raced into the book signing room again with my copy of Perdido Street Station clutched in my sweaty hand to join the queue for China Mieville. China's queue was even longer than Scalzi's. I'm glad I only had one Mieville book to sign because I doubt I would be able go around twice this time in an hour. That and Mieville writes door stoppers. I doubt I could carry more than one. As it was I was able to go around twice. The second time just to get a photo with China. As I told him, if it ain't on my blog it didn't happen.

The Mieville queue was quite long. You really don't have that long to wait. Once you get chatting with someone else time flies. The queues for the book signings are good places to meet people. Lets face it it doesn't matter how some people look we're all here for the same thing. We're all fans. For that reason we all have at least one thing in common. These are my people. There is something comforting in that. In the Mieville queue I was pretty much close to dead last so it may have taken close to an hour to get to the table. I think I must have stepped through some time portal because it really didn't seem to take the best part of an hour.

For what it is worth I think his book The City & The City, a Hugo finalist this year, is my pick for the best novel. It is an amazing read. I'm not the only one that think this way. In a later panel, the Mystery panel - I'll get to that later, TC & TC was mentioned and you could even hear the enthusiasm in the voices of seasoned pros when they talk about it.


Room 201, where all the book signings take place, is also the fan lounge and coffee area and it is where the Kaffeeklatsches also take place. The picture below is a couple of Kaffeeklatsches in session and beyond that is part of the dealers room.

Finally there was enough of a break in the program, as far as I was concerned, to go for lunch. So it was over to Crown Casino again. I should go for a gamble one of these days. But no, it is safer just going for a feed. I've said it before, but books are my crack. The last thing I need to do is start losing money at the tables. And hey, with a kid on the way I have to show at least some responsibility. Gambling is boring anyway. This time lunch was a crappy pork sandwich. Nothing really wrong with it. Too big if anything. The iced coffee was pretty good though.


This post is getting too long. I think I'll stop here and write up the afternoon's panels in the next post. Stay tuned.

Worldcon

I've made the journey to Melbourne for the 68th Annual Worldcon - Aussiecon Four. Worldcon is the World Science Fiction Convention held to celebrate science fiction and fantasy. Worldcon culminates with the Hugo Awards ceremony on Sunday night. The writer guest of honour this year is Kim Stanley Robinson.

View of Melbourne from the convention centre

Today was all about orientation and registration. There were lots of panels after the official opening at 2pm but apart from a couple of author readings I spent a lot of time, and money, in the dealers room. Don't get excited. We're not talking about dealing crack here. Then again it is like crack for me - books.

Worldcon opening ceremony


Guests of honour (Right to left) Kim Stanley Robinson, Shaun Tan & Robin Johnson

I had wanted to register my name for a kaffeeklatsch with John Scalzi. Kaffeeklatsches are small group discussion with authors with a maximum of 10 guests over coffee. Of course Scalzi's session was booked out probably before I got out of bed this morning. I was able to get my name down for Sean Williams but he was sick and the session was cancelled. Third time lucky maybe with Garth Nix? Nope, his session was cancelled too. There are kaffeklatsches every day of the con so I've got a couple more days find another author to stalk.

The Melbourne Covention Centre is part of the Crown Casion complex so it is just a short walk to the eateries at Crown. Most of the restaurants are too expensive for a quick snack so I got a dodgy steak sanger for $10 bucks. I could have paid almost thirty bucks for burger at Rockpool Bar and Grill though. While I was eating I got into conversation with a couple at my table. Helen Lowe is an author whose second novel was released today. I enjoyed having a chat with Helen and her partner. Kiwis are such friendly people.

I went to a reading with a couple of authors. First up was an old fave of mine Aussie author Sean McMullen. He read from his entertaining YA novel novel Before The Storm. I'll definitely be tracking down a copy of that one. The next reading was by Shirley Jackson award winning author Robert Shearman. I was about to duck out before Robert started but I'm glad I didn't. He read a short story from his award winning collection. What an entertaining read and story.

Sean McMullen

Robert Shearman

Schlock Mercenary author Howard Tayler signing his books and really personalising the autograph with a picture.

Hugo Awards

Tomorrow I have a couple of books signings I want to get to and a shiteload of panels.

Charlie Stross at the Galaxy Bookshop

Worldcon is on next week in Melbourne. Worldcon is the huge World Science Fiction Convention held somewhere in the world every year to celebrate science fiction and fantasy and hand out the Hugo Awards. This year's Worldcon is Aussiecon Four and is the 68th Worldcon. Because Worldcon is in Melbourne we haven't had many of the big names in SF visit Sydney for book signings. That is, except for Charlie Stross.
Charlie is a British author and lives in Scotland. He's written about 15 novels and a couple of collections. I only had seven books on me to get signed but I have a couple more in storage and I wasn't able to dig them out in time for the signing. Charlie very kindly offered to sign them if I take them to Melbourne with me next weekend. Yep, I'm going to Worldcon next week. A five day nerd fest. Half the guest authors there are some of my favourite authors. If I was going down in a truck I might be able to take their books to get signed. Unfortunately we're flying so we're limited in what I can carry. I'll probably only take a couple of books with me for signings. Also, I stuffed up my itinerary and we're coming home on the Sunday. Worldcon finishes on the Monday and most of the scheduled book signings are on the Monday. D'oh.
Alastair Reynolds and George RR Martin will however be coming to the Galaxy Bookshop in Sydney after Worldcon. There's a few door stoppers I won't have to carry down to Melbourne.




Charlie Stross' blog
Galaxy Bookshop website
Worldcon official website
Aussiecon Four official website